Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland

As I read about Mr. MacFarland in “ I Just Wanna Be Average” I was reminded of Mr. Escalante in “Stand and Deliver”.  Though we are not explicitly told why Mr. Escalante chose to teach, we can assume that it was a choice that he made because he had desire to do so. We watch him drive a long way from a middle class to lower class neighborhood and  through a conversation that he has with his neighbor we learn that he has held a good job;  it is unclear if he has had any precious teaching experience. Mr. MacFarland also made a choice to teach because he desired to do so even though he had not had any teachers training. Both teachers worked their students hard, or as Rose says, “he had us so startled with work...”. Though the level of expectation both teachers had for the students was high, the students in both classes could also see the level of expectation that the teachers had for themselves in teaching the classes. They were committed. Going beyond the call of duty meeting students outside of class to help them see themselves as having more than they had previously thought.  Neither teacher was deterred by someones bad attitude and any attempts to derail the progress of the class ended up making the student look foolish. In both cases the students worked hard because they respected their teacher and wanted the favor of that teacher in return.